Friday, 22 May 2015

Interview with Mari Iijima, voice of Minmay in both English and Japanese dubs of the series. Aihiro Hase, the original voice actor of Hikaru Ichijo mentioned in the interview passed away in 1996. He was 31 years old when he committed suicide by jumping from the 7th story of his apartment.

Thursday, 21 May 2015

“An Object at Rest” is an animated short film by Seth Boyden that tells the story of a stone over geological eras and the eventual interruption of the stone’s peaceful slumber caused by humans. The beautiful watercolor backgrounds set an organic tone that highlights the earthy, natural feel of the film.

The epic tale of a rock (yep – you heard me right!) told over millions of years, An Object at Rest takes it viewers on a journey through time as we witness our stone protagonist battle against the forces of nature…and mankind. Layering digital animation on-top of hand-painted watercolor background’s, Seth Boyden’s charming animation expertly blends the painterly quality of its aesthetic, with its classic storyline, creating a short with a real timeless quality.

Although Boyden’s film is as pretty as a picture (it really does have the feel of a watercolor painting to it), for the team here at Short of the Week, it was the narrative that really made An Object at Rest standout from this year’s CalArts films. An ambitious tale, set over a huge time-period, the assured storytelling on show in this 6-minute thesis film just felt like something we couldn’t ignore.

Speaking via email, the director revealed how he first came up with the concept for his film whilst walking down a gravel road with his dad – “Thinking about the boulders that were ground into tiny pieces and scattered on the street, I wondered where those rocks had been before, and where they would go after the road was gone. This sort of began the perception of “rock time” where everything that happened over centuries of our human history would probably just be seconds from the perspective of a rock. The majority of the scenes that I wanted to capture in the film were inspired from events that have or could have actually happened in the American Midwest. Most of the choices for scenes were determined by experiences from historical locations that I remember visiting from when I was young. All that was left was to weave the rock character into these moments to give it a narrative context.”

Taking 9-months to complete, Boyden graduates from CalArts this month (May 2015) and is planning to enter the feature animation industry as a storyboard artist trainee. If you like what you see, be sure to check out more of his films on Vimeo and keep an eye on his blog for updates

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

After losing control of his engines, bumbling spaceman Fripp finds himself at the mercy of his spaceship. A thrilling descent through an asteroid belt ensues, after which he finds himself marooned on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Without a working spacecraft, the interstellar time-traveler must dip into the dead planet’s history in order to find a way home.

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

E N V O Y is a science fiction, action adventure, short film to be used as a proof of concept for a larger full-length motion picture. It is the story of a troubled young boy who befriends a deadly alien creature, and embarks on a life changing journey. A love-letter to many of the classic action-adventure and science fiction films of the ’80s & ’90s, ENVOY is a passion-project created by Director DAVID WEINSTEIN and Visual Effects Supervisor ADAM COGGIN.

The story has an Iron Giant kind of feel to it, as the story centers on a young boy who comes across a giant robot. The two share a little moment together before the military comes in to take out the robot. The design of the robot is really cool, and it is incredible to see this get picked up by a studio because it's pretty damn impressive.

Weinstein and his team combined traditional film-making techniques with cutting-edge visual effects and animation to meticulously craft the nine-minute short film. The goal is to introduce the story and concept of ENVOY to fans and financiers while demonstrating the teams ability to craft high-budget content for a fraction of the cost.

Friday, 15 May 2015

Simone Vecchia is a young man of Sacile (Pordenone, Italy) forced to the total immobility because the SMA, a degenerative genetic disease. To write his first book he used Cyberlink, a clamp equipped with sensors placed around the front.Cyberlink is a tool produced by the american Brainfinger."Simpatia" (an italian association) has trained Simone to use the computer with Cyberlink.

My dear friend Simone Vecchia, in this autobiography, speak about his life and about his fight against the disease because the SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy).

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